There is surely nothing so bad that you can't make it worse just with the best of intentions. As you read this, remember, a calorie is not a calorie as far as the body is concerned: calories are processed and used differently by the body depending on what kind of food it is, whether or how it is cooked, how much energy the body must expend to deal with different foods, where and how a food is digested in the gut, the involvement of the immune system in digesting certain foods, and even things like how ethnic origin affect organ size and efficacy.

In short, listing the amount of exercise required to burn off food on a restaurant is an exercise in futility unless ALL of these factors have been taken into account (can we imaging the menu that accounts for the fact that Russian intestines, on average, are about five feet longer than those of Italians, amongst others, and thus get more out of the foods they do digest?).

And to what end do we do this? Is there really any valid public policy objective in listing calories on restaurant menus, and now exercise "required" to burn off said calories, given the questionable existence of the health burden of the alleged obesity "epidemic"?

Can we stop with the cult of thinness at all costs, now, and move on to acceptance of all body shapes in combination with promotion of healthy self-image and esteem, eradication of food, and fat-shaming, and engaging people in fun and social physical activities?

How Much Exercise Will It Take to Work Off a Burger? Menus May Soon Tell YouBy Alexandra SifferlinApril 24, 2013

More restaurants display calorie counts on their menus, but what if they also informed you what it would take to burn off those calories?

It’s one thing to know how many calories are packed into a meal you’re about to eat, and quite another to fully appreciate what your body does with them. That’s been clear since cities like New York mandated calorie counts on fast food and restaurant menus so consumers would have a better idea of what they were eating. Despite the added information, studies haven’t shown that the counts led people to eat less. In fact, some surveys found they prompted people to order more food. So caloric information, it seems, doesn’t have much impact on eating behavior.

Better strategies are clearly needed, so researchers Dr. Meena Shah and Ashlei James from Texas Christian University tried another approach — replacing the calorie counts with the number of minutes of brisk walking a person would need to complete to burn off what they just ate.

The researchers chose brisk walking since it’s a physical activity most people can do, and can easily fit into their day, as opposed to running or jogging. “We did the study specifically in younger adults. The reason why we chose young adults is because they exercise more than older adults and we felt that they would relate to it more than older adults,” says Shah.

The scientists recruited 300 men and women ages 18 to 30 and randomly assigned them to order lunch from one of three menus: one that was calorie-free, one that included calorie counts and another labeled with the minutes of walking needed to burn the calories in the food. All the menus had the same food offerings, including burgers, chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders, salad, fries, desserts, soda and water.

The participants who were provided the walking information ordered and consumed fewer calories compared to those who ordered off the menu without calorie labels. However, as with some previous studies, there was no difference in the calories consumed between those who ordered off the menu with calorie count labels and those who were not provided with calorie information.

The findings suggest that putting caloric information in context may help consumers to better appreciate how much they are eating. And while the study focused on participants under age 30, the researchers say the results could have implications for changing eating habits for all adults. “It could take anywhere from one to two hours of moderate exercise such as brisk walking to burn the calories in some of the energy-dense foods. This may then help them make more appropriate food choices,” says Shah. The more information people have, he says, the more informed their food choices might be; there’s nothing like the prospect of more exercise to help fight the urge to eat.

The research was presented at the Experimental Biology 2013 meeting in Boston.

Post subject: Re: How Much Exercise Will It Take to Work Off a Burger?

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 6:40 am

i bite back hardcore

Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2013 11:40 amPosts: 412Location: Ireland

The next logical step would be to install treadmills in restaurants!

_________________... participating in such an odyssey involves a willingness to travel like Dante or Persephone into and through the dark unknown, and only then to emerge into a previously unsuspected fullness.

ah yes the ongoing research to "fight the urge to eat". So pesky, like the urge to breathe, it's almost as though our bodies are built to insist it upon us no matter what reductionist math we read.

what about like "if you need a moderate amount of energy a xxx-calorie lunch is pretty normal, if you don't you should still have at least like a xxx-calorie lunch, and it ain't gonna kill you to have a xxx-calorie lunch especially if you're busy today." I mean that might be somewhat helpful. Or frickin', people could use their brains and restaurants too, so you can look at a menu and go "that's a normal lunch"! "that's a big lunch!" and "that's a light lunch!" and all the options are legit instead of making people nervous and perpetuating the "i'll pay for this later" mentality.bullshit bullshit bullshit.

hear, hear to both comments above.

_________________“If I am not for me, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?”- Rabbi Hillel

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